About this book

What were the origins of rugby in Otago? How did the Technical Colleges and Polytechnics start? Who helped shape New Zealand's first national science research organisation? What were the origins of Dunedin's Portobello marine laboratory and Wellington's Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa? Who was one of New Zealand's first political conservationists? Scholars & Gentlemen Both is a fascinating and moving account of the lives of G.M. Thomson and J. Allan Thomson, who helped to shape the way science and education developed in New Zealand in the 20th century. G.M. Thomson, the father, was one of the foremost of New Zealand's 19th century gentleman naturalists, and a man of extraordinary drive. Among all his other activities leading innumerable church, sporting, educational and community groups, his science was always a spare-time passion. It was a great day in June 1904 when his son Allan Thomson won selection as New Zealand's first Rhodes Scholar and looked set for a brilliant career as a founding professional scientist. But fate intervened. This biography unfolds the private sorrows as well as the public achievements of the two men. It is a moving story of the triumph of the human spirit. Assailed by bitter disappointment and loss, they rose above it all.

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